Will Power
William Power (born March 1 1981) is from Queensland Australia. He drivers for Roger Penske and Penske Rac ing. He has finished 2nd in points the previous 2 seasons. 'Career' In late 2005 he joined CART at Surfers Paradise in Australia. After the race he signed a multi year contract to race for Team Australia. In 2006 he performed well throughout the season with nine top ten finishes and strong qualifying results. At Mexico, the final round of the season, Power took his first podium finish in Champ Car. He won the "rookie of the year" award and finished in 6th place in the championship standings. On 8 April 2007, Power won his first Champ Car race at the inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix, held in the streets of Las Vegas. He qualified on pole position and led most laps, becoming the first Australian driver to win in the series. On 8 July, at the Steelback Grand Prix of Toronto, with rain pouring down and visibility near zero when he got behind other cars, Will Power decided it was time to get aggressive. The Australian drove from fourth to first in 14 laps, finally splashing past rookie Ryan Dalziel to take the lead with 23 minutes to go, and went on to an easy victory. Power had podium finishes at Long Beach, Mont-Tremblant and Mexico City and pole positions at Houston, Edmonton, Surfers Paradise and Mexico City to place fourth in the final point standings in 2007. After the merger with the IRL he drove for KV Racing with sponsor Aussie Vineyards as the sponsor. Power won the final Champ Car race at Long Beach in 2008, also giving Power his first IndyCar Series win. He scored two top-five finishes in IndyCar Series races, enough for 12th overall in 2008. Prior to the 2009 season Penske Racing announced that Power would replace Helio Castroneves until he was done with his legal issues. Power drove the #3 Team Penske Honda to a sixth place finish at St. Pete. Castroneves returned before the next race and Penske agreed that Power would drive at Long Beach and 5 other races for the team for the season. He captured his first IndyCar race win driving the #12 Penske sponsored car for Roger Penske in dominant fashion at Edmonton. Power's season was brought to an abrupt close during practice for the 2009 Motorola Indy 300 in Sonoma when Nelson Philippe spun exiting Turn 3 and stalled in the middle of the racing groove. As turn 3 is a completely blind corner, taken at high speed while cresting a hill, oncoming drivers had no indication there was anything over the hill or any time to react once they got there. EJ Viso spun to avoid the stalled car, but Power, following just behind Viso, had nowhere to go and crashed heavily into the stationary vehicle. Philippe broke his ankle and Power broke his Vertebre. Team Penske announced that Will Power would join the team full time for the 2010 season with sponsorship form Verizon. Power opened the season in dominant fashion, winning the first two races of the 2010 season at Brazil and St. Petersburg, making him the first IndyCar driver since Sam Hornish Jr. in 2001 to win the first two events of the year. Power won 5 races and had 8 poles during the season and took home the Mario Andretti road course championship trophy. He won 6 races in 2011. Will Power was remembered for two on track incidents during the season the first was at Toronto when he and Franchitti both touched and Power ended up crashing. Power was irrit ate that Franchitti didn't get penalized and told VS reporters "Dario always races me dirty". The 2nd incident was at New Hampshire Speedway where the race was restarted in the rain on a wet track and Power got swept up in a big multi car crash. After the crash Will Power was shown on tv flipping Brian Barnhart off. Power looked to be poised to win his first championship in 2011 but during the second to the last race while leading he made contact in the pits with Ana Beatriz and he ended up finishing 19th in the race and lost his points lead to Dario Franchitti. In the final race of the season at Las Vegas, Power had the chance to regain the point lead and win the title but only 11 laps into the race a horrible 15 car crash occured that sent several cars airbourne. Power and Dan Wheldon's made contact with the catch fencing, Powers car luckily hit at an angle but Wheldon's hit cockpit first. Soon after the wreck Randy Bernard announced the race would be abandoned due to the accident and death of Dan Wheldon. Will Power suffered another broken vertebrae as a result of the accident. Power will return to the Team Penske racing organization in 2012 driving the #12 Verizon Wireless Chevy with teammates Castroneves and Briscoe.